Blackburn Rovers Away Is A Must Win For Chelsea On Saturday

Times are tough in the office of Andre Villas-Boas. The troubles started on October 23 at 4:41pm at Loftus Road where the Blues were shown their second red card of the game against QPR and then finished the game by losing 1-0. Three days later they scraped through to the quarter finals of the Carling Cup with ten men thanks to an extra-time winner from sub Daniel Sturridge, but they never would have gotten there had it not been for the goalkeeping heroics of Petr Cech.

Another three days later Arsenal were the visitors at Stamford Bridge where the Gunners hadn’t won there in nearly three years. Well that changed… Chelsea had two lifelines as they took the lead twice and still leaked in five goals after a dodgy defence watched Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie steel the thunder at the Bridge.

The Blues looked down the tunnel at a Champions League group match away at Genk three days later. Chelsea hung onto a 1-0 lead in Belgium but found it frustrating to break Genk down, and ended up drawing this fixture 1-1.

Chelsea have had their troubles off the field with John Terry and his alleged racist row with Anton Ferdinand, which Chelsea supporters voiced their displeasure in Belgium. Are Chelsea about to put all of these problems behind them as they get ready for an away game with Blackburn and then a tough fixture at home with Liverpool? It feels strange to say it, but this game against Rovers will be one of the most important games of the season for Chelsea. Blackburn have only won one game in the league on home soil all season but Rovers are due a win on the back of a Carling Cup result against Newcastle and a thrilling 3-3 draw with Norwich last Saturday.

But what’s next for Chelsea?

With City nine points clear and rivals Spurs knocking on the door with a game in hand, Villas-Boas must be sweating a little. Who will be starting? Who will be the player to step up and take the next penalty kick? Of course it has to be Frank, but these are the little things that will be testing AVB ahead of these next two games.

With ten games played and only two away wins out of five for Chelsea, this one will be the test for two managers who are without doubt under extreme pressure.

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8 Comments

BDNovember 3, 2011

It’s a Chelsea love-in on EPLTALK. First the pic of Terry and Lamps all snugly, then Torres and RM all hugs…..next article should show Villas-Boas jumping into the arms of the hottie that is part of the medical staff and sits on the bench….

No, it won’t be by any means a crucial game…every top team goes through a rough patch…Arsenal had theirs early on with the loss of 2 key players and embarrassing defeats but came through, Tottenham had theirs with Modric and the losses and riots which saw them miss their opening fixture etc Now is simply Chelsea’s turn. Even Man U are going through something of a rough patch as they arent playing particularly well…so no, AVBs not under any pressure…yet.

Ok…I agree with you when you say that all top teams have a run of rough patches. The thing is with Chelsea is that they are not playing that bad of football even with the recent drop of form. The worrying thing (as a Chelsea fan) is that the next game is against Blackburn, who…. lets put it like this…. need some kind of result and are due a win in the league and its probably the best time to play the Blues after on and off the field antics that’s gone on the past 2 weeks. After Blackburn, is Liverpool and if they don’t beat Blackburn on Saturday AVB will not want to play against Liverpool.

Like I say I understand some points that you have said this is why I love the sport, because it brings us football fans opinions out to discus.

A must win game is a bit of a exaggeration at this stage of the season but they certainly dont want to be falling to much further behind City and UTd. Dont be surprised if all of the top teams drop points between now and the end of the X-mas period and that’s when the season really starts.

Right now its all about being within striking distance for the new year. UTd, Chelsea, City and even Arsenal are all capable of putting together a long unbeaten run at any time and when it happens you dont want to be 9 points behind the rest of the pack.